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AgVoice | The good-bad thing about Android Kit Kat

(As it appeared in adgully.com)

osted by Adgully Bureau | on October 9, 2013

Android-lovers have been calling the Android Kit Kat deal the biggest thing after man's landing on the moon, and Apple-lovers have been calling this the total destruction of marketing ethics. If anything, the Android Kit Kat announcement has, in one swift more, polarized the worlds of technology, confectionary, advertising and marketing even more acutely than it was before.

This innocuous partnership, of two unseemingly unconnected brands, has opened out the future to experiments where everything is connected to everything else. Innovative Android names like Cupcake, Donut, Icecream Sandwich and Jellybean - all of which gave a ring of 'niceness' and 'enjoyment' that get coupled with deserts to the brand - has with the addition of Kit Kat to the list, painted the open source wonder with a commercial taint. While it was a total win for Kit Kat, in becoming clubbed with generics like Donut and Icecream Sandwich, Android may have diluted some of its values of gift-giving, collaboration, liberation and creativity. Somehow, Android Kit Kat just does not have the same ring as Android Jellybean.

Arguably, the part best liked about the deal between Android and Kit Kat is that it evolved naturally - as only the best of ideas do. The desert name series started off innocuously, and after eight dessert names, finally progressed into its current one, an association orchestrated by the creative cupids. This deal is landmark, especially since it is likely to have a long term impact on the way all marketing campaigns will be approached in the future. More likely than not, now most brands will want their future pre-written in the Android Kit Kat mould, and will probably prepare for such an eventuality at the drawing board. This will naturally imply that most such evolutionary paths will be schemed by marketing managers and advertising agencies in advance, in the process, removing the innocence that gets associated with the initial Android name extensions. More 'managed' marriages will, in all likelihood, be the order of the day in the near future, a prenatal steroid definitely not in the best interests of brands.

While Android will be applauded for its innovativeness and Kit Kat for its marketing success by their own kind, this tie-up is likely to impact the Android stakeholders in a subtle, but deep manner. The 'goodness' of Android and its all-inclusive open source culture, has to the minds of the purists, been corrupted by this betrothal. It , therefore, see a gradual weaning away of the most ardent Android supporters and fans, the developer community ardently devoted to its 'free' culture. This loss may, over time, prove to be the costliest for Android. | By N. Chandramouli, CEO, TRA

Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author, and do not reflect in any way of Adgully

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